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"Investors" are so desperate to hold on to short-term paper that they paid $100 for a 3-month Treasury-bill at today's auction. That is a 0% yield - for the first time ever - lower even than the auction right after Lehman's bankruptcy in Nov 2008. It is probably safe to say that NIRP is next, followed by more negative yields further to the right of the curve, as the US gradually becomes Europe. But don't worry: as Yellen admitted during her healthcare-scare speech, "nominal interest rates cannot go much below zero", just a little.

Am I reading this wrong or is the T-Bill rate for 13 weeks a negative? I went here when reading the 90 day T-Bill rate is zero. http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=billrates This is news that affects everyone yet no one covers.

The “U.S. treasury bonds” with a face value of $5 billion seized by Income-Tax officials from a businessman in Tirupur district are most likely fake since the U.S. Treasury Department has largely dispensed with issuing paper T-bills and has certainly not issued any with a denomination as high as $1 billion. Indeed, in February 2012, after police in Italy seized fake U.S. bonds worth a whopping six trillion dollars, American officials told the media the U.S. does not sell a $1-billion treasury bond. The Italian haul was similar to but much larger in scale than the recent seizure of five...

Saudi reports spur safety bid, auction supports By Chris Reese NEW YORK | Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:10pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices soared on Thursday as reports of unrest in Saudi Arabia deepened concerns over tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, driving a safety bid that analysts said could dominate the market over the short term. Reports that Saudi police had dispersed a protest, with shots heard at the scene, fueled worries over possible oil supply disruptions and the potential impact of soaring oil prices on the economic recovery. "The entire Treasury market...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 22:07 China Vice Fgn Min: Would Welcome US Comment on Asset Safety BEIJING (MNI) - The Chinese government would welcome a positive statement from the U.S. government regarding the safety of its U.S. assets, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. "If the U.S. would make a positive statement on this issue, we would surely welcome that," said Cui Tiankai, the vice foreign minister.

Beijing buys more US debt By Wang Bo and Tan Yingzi (China Daily) Updated: 2010-09-18 07:36 BEIJING/WASHINGTON - China increased its holdings of United States treasury debt in July after two months of net sales and economists say it is unlikely Beijing's appetite for US assets will fade in the near future as two of the world's largest economies become increasingly interdependent. China's holdings of treasury bonds rose slightly to $846.7 billion in July after two months of declines, the US Department of Treasury reported on Thursday. The news allayed concerns that Washington's largest creditor was moving away from investing...

Don't Touch 10, 30 Year US Bonds: Marc Faber Published: Tuesday, 17 Aug 2010 | 2:52 AM ET By: Ansuya Harjani News Assistant, CNBC Asia Pacific Investors should stay clear of 10 and 30-year U.S. government bonds, warns Marc Faber, editor & publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, following the Treasury Department's report that China's ownership of American debt has fallen to its lowest level in a year. "I think eventually inflation will accelerate," he said. "Whenever food prices go up, and grains have been very strong recently, with the sum delay, you get inflationary pressures." 10-year treasury...

China won't dump U.S. Treasuries or pile into gold 8:06am EDT By Zhou Xin and Alan Wheatley BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday ruled out the "nuclear" option of dumping its vast holdings of U.S. Treasury securities but called on Washington to be a responsible guardian of the dollar. In the third in a series of statements explaining its work to the Chinese public, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange sought to allay concerns in the outside world that arise whenever Beijing shifts its holdings of U.S. government debt. "Any increase or decrease in our holdings of U.S. Treasuries is...

Debt overload, and the hunt for a successor to U.S. bonds Abandoning Treasurys for comparatively safer bets, from Australia to Brazil /snip Hasenstab and other bond investors have begun to question whether the U.S. Treasury bond market can still be called the safest investment in the world, as attention to Washington's growing deficit spending has come into sharper focus with the debt problems that are engulfing Greece, Portugal and Spain.

China finds new ways to buy U.S. debt Anonymous purchases made through unconventional channels would allow Chinese to remain biggest holders of American bonds BRIAN MILNER From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 12:00AM EST Last updated on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010 3:12AM EST Despite a sharp reduction in its official stash of U.S. Treasuries, China is far from bailing on the world's safest and deepest market, analysts say. Indeed, China may be adding to its vast hoard through secret purchases made through foreign banks. Such transactions do not show up in the U.S. data. Such...

Japan eclipses China as top US Treasury holder (AFP) – 23 hours ago WASHINGTON — China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt, according to Treasury data released Tuesday. China's bond holdings dropped substantially to 755.4 billion dollars in the last month of December from 789.6 billion in November, said the Treasury's international capital data report. Japan's holdings increased to 768.8 billion dollars in December from 757.3 billion dollars in November, according to the data. China had grabbed the top position from Japan in September 2008...

Experts: Get Out of Bonds Now Before the Bubble Bursts Thursday, 31 Dec 2009 04:42 PM Article Font Size By: Dan Weil Some sobering advice from Wall Street experts as the New Year dawns: The 2009 surge in bond prices represents a bubble that will soon burst — after all, government debt issuance appears to be turning into an investment scam. "My biggest fear is the bond market,” says Dan Deighan, founder of Deighan Financial Advisors. “There is going to be a meltdown," he told CNBC. "It's time to get out of bonds." The Barclays Capital corporate bond index had...

Chinese banks find their credit in high demand By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, January 2, 2010; A01 BEIJING -- China's state-owned banks have become a main engine of the global recovery, financing the construction of copper mines, purchase of airplanes, expansion of retail stores and other projects even as their U.S. and European counterparts scale back lending. The surge in Chinese lending, triple the 2008 rate, has provided a lifeline to international corporations during the worst recession in decades, and it reflects a diversification in China's global economic role beyond its holdings of vast amounts of...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

China's trade surplus shrinks to $12.9 billion in September Falling surpluses point to end of China's role as `dollar recycler,' analyst says By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- China's trade surplus contracted in September at a faster-than-expected pace, as the gap between what the nation sells to and buys from the world continued to shrink. Analysts said the report adds to evidence that the country will swing to a trade deficit early next year. China's trade surplus in September totaled $12.9 billion, down about 56% from a year earlier. Median market expectations were for a surplus of $15.8...

Long Term Treasury Yields: Someone Is Going To Be Wrong Submitted by thetechnicaltake on 08/26/2009 00:12 -0500 10 Year Treasury Economic Recovery Equities REAL Trade Treasury Treasury Bonds Treasury market Unemployment For over 8 months now, I have been chronicling the plight of the 10 year Treasury bond. Based upon the "next big thing" indicator it was my expectation that yields on the 10 year Treasury bond would rise once there was a monthly close above a yield of 3.342%. This occurred at the end of May, 2009. See figure 1 a monthly chart of the yield on the 10...

BRICs Launch Assault on Dollar's Global Status Brazil, Russia, India and China, sometimes lumped together as BRIC to represent fast-growing developing economies, are selling off their U.S. Treasury Bond holdings. Russia announced earlier this month it will sell U.S. Treasury Bonds, while China and Brazil have announced plans to cut the amount of U.S. Treasury Bonds in their foreign currency reserves and buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund instead. The BRICs are also soliciting public support for a "super currency" capable of replacing what they see as the ailing U.S. dollar. The four countries account for 22 percent...

Mortgage rates climb Treasury yields on a tear help pull rates higher; 30-year fixed mortgage jumps to 5.95%. By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com contributing writer Last Updated: June 11, 2009: 3:03 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home mortgage rates jumped in the most recent week, pulled higher by skyrocketing Treasury yields. The average 30-year fixed rate soared to 5.95% from 5.45% last week, according to a weekly national survey from Bankrate.com. The 30-year rate is often influenced by the benchmark 10-year bond's yield, which has increased steadily to hover around 4% recently. The yield was 2% just six months ago....

Today’s TIC data … Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 By bsetser John Jansen is right; today’s TIC January data was a disaster. $150 billion in (net) capital outflows (-148.9 billion to be precise) cannot sustain even a $40 billion trade deficit. I also though have learned that the TIC data doesn’t necessarily match the trade deficit on a monthly basis — and on occasion it moves in ways that seem inconsistent with the market. If the big outflow had come in December (a month when the dollar slid) rather than January, the flow data and the market move would...

The US placed about $1.3 trillion of Treasuries with non-Chinese investors in 2008 Posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 By bsetser Yes, China probably bought close to $400 billion of Treasuries too. My top secret model says China bought exactly $374.571 billion of Treasuries in 2008, a record. China certainly bought far more Treasuries in 2008 than in 2007. My model, which accounts for flows through London, suggests that China added $120.3 billion to its Treasury portfolio in 2007. But the big surge in demand for Treasuries in 2008 didn’t come from China. Other investors increased their holdings of marketable...